Lindsay Anderson: O Lucky Man! (Part 2)

O Lucky Man! keeps swirling in my head. Some further observations are in order on techniques. Above: "old-fashioned" Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) and insouciant Patricia Burgess (Helen Mirren) in London.

I. Action scenes alternate with interludes, some of them pastoral and some musical, the latter featuring Alan Price and his band delivering songs that comment on or prefigure what else is going on in the film. Anyone who has heard The Animals' version of "House of the Rising Son" (1964) will be familiar with Price on some level (that's him playing a Vox Continental organ on the track). Here, Price's assembled group sounds a lot like early 1970s Kinks, at least to me. On the title track, Price sings (this is only a snippet):

If you have a friend on whom you think you can rely
You are a lucky man!
If you've found the reason to live on and not to die
You are a lucky man!

From the satiric "Poor People:"

Poor people stay poor people
And they never get to see
Someone's got to win in the human race
If it isn't you, then it has to be me.

Finally -- from "Justice:"

All life from beginning to end
You pay your monthly installments.
Next to health is wealth
And only wealth will buy you justice.

II. Throughout O Lucky Man!, people in positions of power rarely act for the common good; quite the opposite -- there is much abuse of power at all levels, from cops on the beat to the corporate top. Intimidation and torture or, as Dick Cheney and gang defined such tactics during their conducting of the "War on Terror" -- enhanced interrogation techniques -- are used to exact a phony confession from Mick Travis, for instance. On the other hand, as in Voltaire's Candide, there are sources of compassion, including various benevolent people depicted in this film (providing needed uplift, for sure). One of my favorite sections follows Mick as he escapes from a military-industrial accident on a secret facility through a wildly dangerous apocalyptic zone until he crosses a stream, hears birds singing and church bells in the distance, and eventually finds respite in a pastoral church setting.













III. Like a John Dos Passos novel, O Lucky Man! utilizes a variety of techniques to drive home the narrative and make comments on the greater world. In addition to the Alan Price and company performances, silent film style is occasionally used for emphasis, as is graffiti (still shot example: REVOLUTION IS THE OPIUM OF THE INTELLECTUALS, plus peace sign), little bits of radio news heard in the background, scrolling news headlines (exactly as we are now used to now via cable news) on a building in London;  and quotations from books, including lines of philosophy and poetry.  Let's  not forget advertising slogans and various social clichés worthy of Are You Being Served?

IV. There is more -- for  a later post.



Today's Rune: Journey.